Cleaning vs. Painting Grout

I’ve seen the Pinterest pins for cleaning grout. I further researched grout cleaning formulas online. I tested methods side-by-side (the one time I cleaned the grout myself, several years ago).

Here’s my findings: The best way to clean grout is elbow grease. A lot of it. (Wrist-throbbing elbow grease, at that.) It hardly matters which concoction of cleaner you use. It is remarkably satisfying–instant (cleaning) gratification–since it looks awesome once you clean it! However: once you clean it, you will need to seal the groutor it’ll get dirty again super-quick.

It was that unpleasant truth (needing to add a sealer) that prompted me to consider painting grout.

The paint comes with a sealer built right in. One bottle will be enough for an enormous amount of space.

Funny story: When I went to the Home Improvement Store to purchase the grout paint, I followed the instructions on the back of the bottle and calculated the square footage I would need… except instead of square footage of grout, I calculated square footage of floor. Pro-Tip: one bottle will be more than enough for two rooms.

Supplies you’ll need:

1 bottle of grout paint

1 old toothbrush (perfect for “scrubbing” the paint into the grout)

(optional) paper plate to pour some paint on to… or just repeatedly dip your toothbrush in the bottle

some wet rags

Wash the floor really well before you start.

Scrub paint into a grout line

Wipe the excess paint off the tile with your wet rag… careful not to wipe up the paint itself

Repeat for all the other grout lines

The paint dries relatively quickly, but you really shouldn’t wash your floors for 72 hours (following the directions on the bottle).

It does take a long time to complete, but looks amazing and is far less painful on your wrists than scrubbing.